How the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle's American Riviera Orchard Shopify shop got hacked

It is noticeable that the Duchess of Sussex Meghan has been missing on social media for the past three weeks according to her critics in the British media. One may guess that she is busy with her startup company AsEver. If you follow the Instagram stories on @aseverofficial you would have noticed a daily stream of pictures and videos of customers receiving their orders of AsEver Napa Valley Rosé. Is that where Duchess Meghan's focus is at the moment? Quietly in the background making sure the launch on the 1st of July 2025 is a successful delivery?

In the absence of news, the British media have done their best to fill it with another storm regarding the Duchess of Sussex Meghan's content partnership with Netflix. And they may have also stirred trouble with the other partnership with Netflix CPG regarding the launch of the AsEver Napa Valley Rosé with an alleged Netflix source throwing cold water on the prospects of success. Does that explain why the focus in Montecito seems to be quietly in the background at @aseverofficial? There is good reasons to do so looking at the data analysis of the website traffic of AsEver.com. There was definitely more website traffic at the second drop of products on the 20th of June 2025 than at launch a few weeks before. I have attributed it to those who were lucky to get their hands at launch posting pictures and videos online which generated more interest and a rush on the 20th of June 2025. A similar profile could happen with the AsEver Napa Valley Rosé which surprisingly has won several blind taste commission by Duchess Meghan's critics in the Media.

A question maybe asked, how did Shopify came to be involved when it seems that the AsEver website maybe operated by a different entity called Snow Commerce for at least the ordering side of AsEver.com. I know for sure that wine.asever.com or AseverWine.com could be hosted on Shopify. This is because before the launch on the 1st of July 2025, AseverWine.com was being redirected to a portal on Shopify which asked for authentication if you are the owner of the site. Although the derived websites of AsEver.myshopify.com or aseverwine.myshopify.com do not exist as of writing this.

With the experience of that redirection a few weeks earlier it was therefore not a complete surprise when this website below popup in some data analysis I was doing with Asever.com.

https://americanrivieraorchard.myshopify.com/

There is clearly a copyright infringement on Shopify. It is therefore concerning that Shopify does not do any due diligence in their onboarding process of new clients. That is one possible explanation or has the shop been hacked if it was initially opened by Duchess Meghan's AsEver company formerly known as American Riviera Orchard (ARO).

It is noted that this specific Shopify shop comes top of a Google search term of "american riviera orchard shop". What should actually happen is a redirection to the AsEver.com website. There is a good reason for this in the data analysis of the AsEver.com website. The Google search term of "american riviera orchard" produces expected results with references to AsEver and its website. This shows up with nearly 64,000 searches a month implying despite the name change, American Riviera Orchard still brings a lot of referrals to the AsEver.com website.

The question is who owns American Riviera Orchard on Shopify?

As of date and time of writing this, the website was still live and Shopify has been contacted for clarification on the issue of copyright and ownership. This is important in establishing trust in the content on Shopify and the public confidence in the ownership of companies trading with Shopify. Shopify has not yet responded to the enquiry. AsEver.com was also notified to clarify the ownership of the Shopify shop which clearly has a trademark symbol implying a legitimate ownership of the trademark. AsEver.com has not yet responded to the enquiry.